Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-10-12

The earth made no demonstration OF wei
come. If one of the great princes of this
world steps out at a depot cheers resound
and the bands play and the flags wave. But
for the arrival. of this missionary Prince Of
the skies not torch ffared, not trumpet
blew, not plume fluttered. All the music
and the pomp were overhead. Our world
opened for him nothing better than barn
door,. The rsjah of Cashmere sent to Vic.
toria a bedstead of carved gold and a
canopy that cost seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, but the world had for the
Prince of heaven and earth only litter oi
straw. The crown Jewels in the Tower OF
London amount to fifteen million dollars,
but this member Of eternal royalty had no.
where to lay His head. To know how poor
He was ask the camel-drivers, ask the
shepherds, ask Mary, ask the three wise
men of the East who afterward came there,
young Caspar and middle-aged Balhasar
and old Melchior To know how poor He
was examine all the records of real estate
in all that Oriental country, and see what
| vineyard, or what house, or what field He
owned. Not one. Of what mortgage was
He the MORTGAGE? Of what tenement was
| He the landlord? ? Of what lease was He
the lessee Whoever paid Him rent? Not
owning the boat on which He sailed, or the
beast on which He rode, or the pillow on
which He slept. He had so little estate
that in order to pay his tax He had to per-
| form miracle, putting the amount of the
| assessment in fish's mouth and having it
hauled ashore. And after His death the
world rushed in to take an inventory of
His goods, and the entire aggregate was
| the garments He had worn, sleeping in
| them by night and travelling in them by
fhorr ha rIt1Ct nj h.
way and the saturation of the sea. Paul in
my text did not go far from hitting the
mark, did he, when he said of the mission
ary Prince: "For your sakes he became
poor?"
| The world could have treated Him better
| if it had chosen. 1t had all the means for
making His earthly condition comfortable.
| Only few years before when Pompey, the
general, arrived at Brindisi, he was greeted
with arches and costly column which cele-
brated the twelve.million people whom he
| had killed or conquered, and he was al
| lowed to wear his triumphal robe in the
Senate. The world had applause for i'm
perial butchers but bufeting for the Prince
of Peace. Plenty of golden chalices for the
| favored to drink out of, but our Prince
must put his lips to the bucket of the well
by the roadside after He had begged for a
drink. Poor Born in another mans barn
and eating at another mans table, and
cruising the lake in another mans fishing
smack, and buried in another mans mauso-
leum. Four inspired authors wrote of His
biography, and innumerable lives Of Christ
have been published, but He composed His
autobiography in most compressed way
He said 81 have trodden the wine-press
alone" Poor in the estimation of nearly
al fho a1a col lpd
Him Sabbath breaker, wine-bibber, traitor,
blasphemer, and ransacked the dictionary
of opprobrium from lid to lid to express
their detestation. can think now of only
two well-to-do men who espoused His
cause-Nicodemu and Joseph of Arima-
thea. His friends for the most part were
people who, in that climate where op-
thalmy or Inflammation of the eyeball
sweeps ever and anon as scourge, had
become blind, sick people who were anx-
ious to get well, and troubled people in
whose family there was some one dead or
dying. If He had purse at all 1t was
empty, or we would have heard what was
done with the contents at the post mortem.
Poor? The pigeon in the dove cote, the
rabbit in its burrow, the silk-worm in its
cocoon, the bee in it's hive is better provided
for, better off, better sheltered. Aye, the
brute creation has home on earth, which
Christ mas not.
fon windy days the raven
Gambol like dancing skif,
Not the less he loves his haven
On the bosom of The cliff.
Ifalmost with eagle pinion
Ger the APPS the chamois roam,
Yet he has some small dominion
Which nc doubt he calls his home.
But the Crown Prince of all heavenly
dominion has less than the raven, less than
the chamois, for He was homeless. Aye,
in the history of the universe there is no
other instance of such coming down. Who
can count the miles from the top of the
throne to the bottom of the cross? Cleo
patra, giving banquet to Antony, took
pearl worth a hundred thousand dollars
and dissolved it in vinegar and swallowed
it, but when our Prince, according to the
evangelist, in his last honrs, took the vine
gar, in it had been dissolved all the pearls
of his heavenly royalty. Down until there
was no other depth for Him to touch,
troubled until there was no other harass-
ment to suffer, poor until there was no
other pauperism to torture. Millions of
dollars spent in wars to destroy men, who
will furnish the statistics of the value of
that precious blood that was shed to save
US? eye know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that though He was rich, yet for
your sakes He became poor"
Only those who study this text in two
places can fully reach its power, the Holy
Land of Asia Minor and the Holy Land of
Heaven. How should like some day to
take drink out of Jacobs well, and take
{. sail on Galilee, and read the Sermon on
the Mount while standing on Oivet, and
see the wilderness where Christ was tempt
ed, and be some afternoon on Calvary at
about 3 o'clock, the hour at which closed
the crucitixion, aud sit under the sycamores
and by the side of brooks, and think and
dream and pray about the poverty of HIM
who came our souls to save. But you and
I will probably be denied that, and so here,
u another continent and in another hemis-
phere. and in scenes as different as pOssi
BILE, we recount as we'll we may how poor
our heavenly Prince became. Aud in the
other holy land above we may all study the
riches that He left behind when he started
for earthly expedition. Come, let us bar
gain to meet each other at the door of the
Fathers mansion or on the bank of the
river Just where it rolls from under the
throne, Or at the outside gate. Jesus got
the contrast by exchanging that world for
this we will get it by exchanging this
world for that. There and then you will
understand more of the wonders of the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who,
''though He was rich, yet for your sakes
became poor.
Yes, grace, free grace, sovereign grace,
omnipotent grace. Among the thousands
of words in the language there is no more
queenly word. 1t means free and unmerit-
T. IF
the word. One hundred and twenty-nine
times does the Bible eulogise grace. 1t is
door swung wide open to let into the
pardon of God all the millions who choose
to enter it.
John Newton sang oil it when he wrote
"Amazng grace, how sweet the sound,
| That saved wretch like mel"
| Philip Doddridge put it into allhymnolo-
gy when he wrote
| fGrace, tits a charming sound,
Harmonious to the ear;
Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the world shall hear"